No one else in the mixed martial arts world has the institutional knowledge veteran official John McCarthy possesses. McCarthy began officiating at UFC 2 in 1994 and has been involved in the sport in various capacities ever since. While the Zuffa-era UFC often gets credit for the sport’s legalization, pioneers such as McCarthy and the late Jeff Blatnick tirelessly worked on the sport’s ruleset and regulatory issues during the dark days of the late 1990s, when the sport was nearly legislated out of existence. By the time the Fertitta brothers purchased the company, the legwork done by the likes of McCarthy put the UFC in position to take the next steps. So there must have been a sense of deja vu last week as the UFC attempted to do an end-around to keep next weekend’s UFC 249 going during a global pandemic. UFC president Dana White attempted to move the show to the Tachi Palace Casino Resort on tribal land near Fresno, Calif., a venue which hosted MMA events for years before California began running commission-regulated events in 2006.
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John McCarthy on UFC 249 cancellation: ‘You can win battles and lose wars’ – MMA Junkie